Mortgage News and Financial Information 
Come here to read about what is going on in the world of Mortgages and what financial information is affecting the mortgage markets.
There are currently 72 blog entries related to this category.
FRIDAY FINANCIALS by Jed Marquis
Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 11:27pm. 18 Views, 0 Comments.
So things are good for mortgage rates, again. The Producer Price Index (inflation measurement – inflation is bad for interest rates) came in slightly below expectations, showing very little inflation. One of these days, the tide will shift but today that’s good news. Yesterday’s unemployment claims came in right at the consensus estimate and the previous period’s estimate was revised up but only by a minor amount so no surprises. Greece appears ready to pull out of the EU and the speculation is that Spain will follow. How does that affect us, you may ask? Europe is nervous again with speculation that Greece may fail and the entire EU is looking rather fragile. Uncertainty is bad in the investment world so investors are flooding to the more stable…
MID-WEEK MARKETS by Jed Marquis
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 10:25pm. 22 Views, 0 Comments.
We’re seeing the bellwether 10 year bond bump against the record low yields of September as the speculation is that this afternoon’s US bond auction will receive huge demand. As Europe’s woes escalate, with Greece saying they won’t follow the austerity terms of their bailout, the Greek President being unable to form a coalition government, Spain showing more potential real estate loan problems and France electing a new President who ran on a platform of deficit spending, money flooded into US Bonds. Later when it was announced that Greece will receive 5.2 Billion Euros of aide question and the PM of Portugal and Spain recommitting to austerity programs, the rush to US bonds cooled slightly. For US mortgages, it means rates are below 4%, a very few…
FRIDAY FINANCIALS by Jed Marquis
Friday, May 4th, 2012 at 9:38pm. 25 Views, 0 Comments.
Is there something funny going on in Washington with the economic news? Today may make you wonder.
Today’s employment numbers came out and they were much softer than expected, pretty much confirming the ADP report earlier in the week. Only 130,000 jobs were created, well off the expected 165 - 178,000 and only slightly above the ADP number of 122,000. These April numbers follow a very disappointing initial March report of 120,000 that has been revised upward to 154,000 but a strong February report of 240,000 – revised up to 259,000. Still we’ve still seen weak job creation numbers in March and April coupled with higher than expected new unemployment claims. Yet, the unemployment rate dropped again to 8.1%. Just to be clear, 388,000 people filed…
MID-WEEK MARKETS by Jed Marquis
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 10:29pm. 60 Views, 0 Comments.
It appears the recovery isn’t as strong as it appeared but many investors aren’t willing to accept that quite yet. Last Thursday’s jobless claims numbers reflected a minor but still upward revision of the previous week and a significant increase in new claims. The weekly claims were 8000 above the top of the estimates, 13,000 above the consensus and equivalent to the upwardly revised prior week’s numbers. These are the highest numbers of 2012.
The weak jobless claims numbers were followed Friday by a disappointing GDP number reflecting a significant slowdown in the recovery. Government spending dropped and so did the GDP number. It came in at 2.2%, below the conservative 2.5% estimate and way below the 4th quarter’s 3% growth.
Then, to top off…
MID-WEEK MARKETS by Jed Marquis
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 11:46pm. 36 Views, 0 Comments.
The Fed gave the bond market what the “experts” expected and they didn’t like it. The Fed’s announcement today to hold steady on interest rates through 2014, was exactly what all the investors forecast. And the bellwether 10 year treasury bond rose from 1.96% to over 2%. The disappointment is most likely from the Fed not supplying any clues as to their future intentions. Such is the state of the markets today – little logic. That will keep mortgage rates in the 4% range.
Mark Zandi, Chief Economist for Moodys, announced in a phone interview with Bloomberg that: “The crash is over, home sales -- both new and existing -- and housing starts are now off the bottom.” He quoted yesterday’s reports of better than expected new home sales and a slowdown in…
FRIDAY FINANCIALS by Jed Marquis
Friday, April 20th, 2012 at 9:57pm. 38 Views, 0 Comments.
The week ended with mortgage rates still at 4% and the 10 year bond at 1.96% down .02% for the week and in the middle of its narrow trading range for the week. All-in-all, a stable but uncertain market. Europe is as stable as i'ts been but everything is relative. Spain has to do something about its debt issues and the world is hoping that the silence is just Spain developing a great plan.
US existing home sales came in at 4.48 million, down 2.6% from February and well below the consensus of 4.62m and outside the consensus range of 4.5-4.72 million. This is contrary to the hopes from the RE/MAX report earlier in the week that overall sales were up. Existing home sales are still up 5.2% for the year.
MBA reports that purchase mortgage applications…
MID-WEEK MARKETS by Jed Marquis
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 10:14pm. 89 Views, 0 Comments.
A little up, a little down. Not much going on as the 10 year treasury closed last Friday at 1.98%, drifted down to 1.95, back up over 2% and currently sits in the 1.98% range, again. That’s keeping 30 year mortgages at 4%. What news did come out early this week isn’t of major consequence and everyone’s waiting for tomorrow’s jobless claims (estimated at 365K), existing home sales (est. 4.62 million) and the less important Philadelphia Fed Survey (estimated at 12.0).
Here’s what we have seen this week:
- RE/MAX is reporting that home prices nationwide were up 5.8% in March, 2012 over March 2011. That’s the first time we’ve had two consecutive monthly increases since August of 2010.
- RE/MAX is also reporting that the number of home sales in March…
FRIDAY FINANCIALS by Jed Marquis
Friday, April 13th, 2012 at 11:52pm. 53 Views, 0 Comments.
This week started by focusing on Europe and ended focused on China. Twice we saw the 10 year T-bill drop below 2%. Once it came back up but today it barely ended there at 1.99%.
Early in the week we saw the 10 year bond drop below 2% as Spain’s situation looks more and more dubious. Then last night reports from China that their GDP slowed more than expected at 8.1% - the lowest level in 3 years - sent investors running for cover into US and German bonds. The German 10 year bundt dropped to its lowest level in history.
The DOW ended the week down, below 13,000 again. The S&P ended had its largest weekly drop of 2012, down 2% as the dollar strengthened against the Euro and US consumer confidence eroded again.
As far as mortgage rates go,…
MID-WEEK MARKETS by Jed Marquis
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 11:55pm. 49 Views, 0 Comments.
With the market closed for Good Friday, we technically saw rates plummet Monday morning although we talked Friday about the “drop”. Monday and Tuesday, we watched as rates stabilized and slowly fall further, dropping below 2% for the first time in 3 weeks. Then this morning we saw them jump back up above 2% and close at 2.04%. For mortgage rates, it means that rates dropped down to 4% and are still there. Investors didn’t believe we would stay in the below 4% range for long and the price differential between 3.875% and 4% on a 30 year mortgage remained prohibitively large.
Last week’s soft job creation report, coupled with uncertain news from Europe, Spain in particular, sent money to the safety of bonds. As the Europe “crisis” once again subsided,…
FRIDAY FINANCIALS by Jed Marquis
Friday, April 6th, 2012 at 11:06pm. 55 Views, 0 Comments.
The roller coaster ride continues. Early in the week, we saw rates drop again as fund managers re-positioned funds to pre-quarter end positions – good for rates. And then the Fed Open Market Committee minutes were released, surprising the markets with a firmer stance against further purchases of bonds and supporting a perceived position of higher rates. Then the unemployment report was released which showed fewer people applying for unemployment benefits – poor for rates. But then we see today that the economy created significantly fewer jobs than had been expected (down 100,000 from last month and 80,000 below projections) – good for rates. However, unemployment dropped from 8.3% to 8.2% - bad for rates. SO…….. if you are confused, so are the …
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